The present invention relates to a method of interior decoration and more particularly to a system for simulating the appearance of the night sky inside a room.
Gazing at the stars is an enjoyable experience for many people but is usually limited to the out-of-doors. Of course, the appearance of the night sky can be simulated in a darkened room. Planetariums have long used projectors to project light spots on the interior surface of a domed room, the light spots being arranged in the same way that stars are arranged in the heavens. A planetarium projector mounted in the center of the room typically consists of a hollow sphere containing a strong light source, the sphere being perforated with holes or containing lenses so that the light from the source images onto the interior surface of the domed room. The holes are arranged on the sphere so that the projected light spots are properly positioned to give a viewer in the room the impression of stars in a night sky arranged to form familiar constellations.
In such a planetarium, as a viewer moves away from the projector toward the periphery of the domed room, the projected constellations begin to appear slightly distorted, particularly the constellations on the part of the dome nearest the viewer due to the angle at which the viewer sees the projection. However such distortion is minimized by the domed shape of the room to the point where it is usually not noticeable unless the viewer is very close to the edge of the room.
When a similar projector is utilized to reproduce the image of the night sky in a conventional room having flat walls, the arrangement of the stars may be quite accurate from the point of view of the projector but the apparent distortion in the relative positioning of the stars and in the shapes of constellations is quite apparent to a viewer only a short distance from the projector due to a difference in angle at which the projections are viewed. As an illustration of this distortion effect, a square drawn on paper looks like an elongated rectangle when viewed from a point other than directly above the paper. A homeowner might wish, for example, to utilize a planetarium projector to reproduce the night sky in a bedroom so that he can "gaze at the stars", but in order for him to see the stars accurately arranged, he would be faced with the prospect of sharing the bed with the projector.
The appearance of the night sky can also be simulated by painting the interior surfaces of a room with spots of phosphorescent paint, the paint spots being arranged to mimic the arrangement of stars in the sky. The result can be striking, but the arrangement of stars created utilizing this phosphorescent paint spot method can accurately mimic the arrangement of the sky only from one point of view in the room. However the problem of a viewer having to share such viewpoint with a bulky projector is eliminated. Unfortunately it is very difficult and time consuming to properly position the paint spots to simulate known constellations with respect to a particular point of view in a room. What would be desirable is a system for easily and accurately determining where the paint spots are to be located.